Every year in December, we set up a small Department 56-esque village that has the usual 2-3 buildings. When the thought of adding a new building came up, I thought it would be more fun to BUILD one, rather than BUY one. Thus, the creation of the "Spruce Caboose Hobby & Craft" shop.

I designed this building completely from the ground up, drawing architectural details and color scheme ideas from Disneyland's Main Street, in order to compliment the other buildings with the Department 56 design and feel.

The mechanics for the two layouts, one a rendition of the Super Chief, the other reminiscent of the Polar express, is contained in the top portion of the building. The entire build was constructed from scratch out of sheet and strip styrene.

"One of the projects that I was assigned in my Maya 3D class was to create a restaurant with a pirate theme. Being familiar with themed environments from my own projects, this was a right up my alley. The hardest part of the project was just trying to compose all the elements perfectly so you could tell what everything is--all in one shot. While shape, form, and composition was the key priority, the lighting really topped it all off, after fudging with the settings and doing render after render to really nail it. Despite the half-hour render time, and the occasional computer crash, it was worth fussing around with.

A chess set created using different kinds of time pieces to stand in for the Kind, Bishop, and others. Modeled in Maya 2008 & 2009 and rendered using Mental Ray. The models were modified in ClayTools and then "printed" in black and white ABS plastic using a Dimension 3D printer. Printed piece are approximately 2.5" wide (average) with the King in the white set being 7.5" tall and the King in the black set being 5".

The Red Canyon Ridge is an expansion proposal for the land of Frontierland (Disneyland) to occupy the areas of Big Thunder Ranch, the region where Cascade Peak once stood and the land that connects both areas, as well as Backstage area. The complex features a sprawling “dual adventure” E-Ticket attraction, the Red Canyon Ridge Railroad and a small “sub-land” known as the town of Red Canyon Ridge.

Right, a 1/240 scale model of the Red Canyon Ridge Complex. Everything is represented as if the complex was seen from the air. Big Thunder Mountain is represented as a drawing. Being that it is a concept model, not all the details such as Animatronic figures and props were included.

Video
Brief overview of model, as "seen from the air"

The Town
The little western town of Red Canyon Ridge represents a typical mining town where storeowners and operators were optimistic about settling out west and the prospect of success (and maybe some gold). Unlike their colleague Big Thunder Mining …